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Category Archives: Travel

The Youtube video, “Curacao Sea Aquarium Park”, published on May 18, 2012 is described as follows: ‘Plan a Curacao Sea Aquarium Park vacation for the entire family. Come and enjoy the daily tours at the aquarium with the sea lion show, get a chance to feed the sharks or just enjoy the exciting dolphin show. For the thrill seekers we have the submarine, Curasub, going to 1,000ft deep or interact with a dolphin up close at Dolphin Academy. And the end of the day you can stay in one of the rooms of the boutique hotel, the Dolphin Suites hotel, which is completely adapted to guests with special needs.’

With many thanks and much admiration, the following is a ‘reblog’ , dated July 22, 2013, from my very favorite blogger, Lesley Carter, of Bucket List Publications.

The following is a spectacular example of how music enhances photography. This video is accompanied by Il Divo and Celine Dion’s , “I Believe”. To fully appreciate Canada’s incredible beauty, watch the three videos in ‘FULL SCREEN’ MODE.

For all of our friends around the world the following YouTube video, “Tom Brokow Explains Canada to Americans”, is a great introduction to Canada ~ and I must admit that, although I have lived in Canada all my life, I LEARNED A GREAT DEAL BY WATCHING THIS VIDEO AND HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT TO EVERYONE!

AND LAST, BUT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST ~ this special video, “CANADA REGIONS – CANADIAN PERSPECTIVES CLASS”, has slides, videos and TEXT DESCRIPTIONS of the photographs ~ Beautiful video expressing Canada values and attitudes. What a majestic landscape and incredible people ~ the second largest country on earth!

SECOND:

Now that you’re incredibly ‘PUMPED’ about this GREAT COUNTRY of ours ~ get out with family, friends and neighbours to participate in all the ‘Canada Day’ activities that are offered in your communities – fellow Ottawans and visitors to our fair city see the video below.

There is one area of the Ecuadorian Amazon that is sopristine that the whole ecosystem has been preserved and even jaguars roam free! But the government is now threatening to go in and drill for oil.

The local indigenous people have been resisting, but they are afraid that oil companies will break up the community with bribes.When they heard that people across the world might stand with them and make a stink to save their land, they were thrilled. The president of Ecuador claims to stand for indigenous rights and the environment, but he has just come up with a new plan to bring oil speculators in to 4 million hectares of jungle.If we can say ‘wait a minute, you’re supposed to be the green president who says no one can buy Ecuador’, we could expose him for turning his back on his commitments just as he is fighting for re-election.

He doesn’t want a PR nightmare right now.If we get a million of us to help the Sani Isla Kichwa community defend their ancestral land and challenge the president openly to keep to his word, we could start a media storm that would make him reconsider the whole plan.

PLEASE sign the petition now and tell everyone (everyone!) ~ let’s help save this beautiful forest.

How two members dug deep to bring sanitation to developing nations – bySusannah Maxcy of Renaissance Winter 2012 magazine.

On the impact Water Ambassadors has had on volunteers: “We’ve had big, macho Canadian men tear up. When some village person shakes your hand and says, ‘thank you’ for saving the lives of our children, it’s pretty humbling. It becomes a marker in people’s lives and that will change them forever. I think people realize the blessing that Canada has. You will never drink a glass of water out of the tap and think about it the same way again,” Barry expresses.

Access to water and proper sanitation are easy to take for granted when you live in a country with the world’s largest fresh water supply. We will neither know what it is like to walk for kilometres to a well nor will we ever know what it is like not to have access to a clean toilet. Enter Barry Hart, District 18, Haliburton and John P. Smith, District 13, Hamilton-Wentworth, Haldimand whose twists of fate inspired them to change the world one well and one latrine at a time.

… Barry Hart, founder of Water Ambassadors Canada, discusses the pressing need to bring clean water to third world countries … The interview is conducted by Lorna Dueck, host of Listen Up TV, a weekly television program exploring news and current affairs from a Christian worldview~uploaded to YouTube on Nov 19, 2009

Barry Hart and his wife, Heather Alloway, first heard about the global water crisis 10 years ago at a conference they attended. “It went from our heads to our hearts. Within a year we were in Guatemala building a well in a remote location, a little scary at first, but totally blew us away … we remember sitting in the Houston airport coming home. By memory we were calling people using a phone card back in Canada to try to tell them what we had seen, heard and experienced. It was absolutely life-changing.”

Upon returning home, Barry and Heather formed the Water Ambassadors of Canada, a faith-based non-profit organization dedicated to improving and providing access to clean water to impoverished communities throughout the world. Since its inception, Water Ambassadors has sent approximately 300 Canadians to Central America, the Caribbean and Africa to help build wells, install water filtration systems and teach hygiene. Empowering the communities they help with the tools and knowledge to maintain these systems, Water Ambassadors provides water security in a time of increasing water instability.

… “Access is a big deal, because many of these places, people walk miles to get water from wells. We repaired on well in November that had been broken for 14 years, which forced the people to walk by that well to get to the next town to get their drinking water … when you fix wells you’re giving them access to clean water close by, or in some cases access to water period, rather than drinking out of the local mud hole. People totally appreciate it; they know what’s going on. It’s a matter of their time and their health that you’re giving them … kids can go to school with healthier tummies and a lot of little girls are not spending hours getting water each day,” says Barry.

Get involved. Are you interested in becoming a water ambassador? Water Ambassadors offers travel volunteer opportunities in Central America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. Learn more about Water Ambassadors of Canada at http://www.waterambassadorscanada.org.

Chand Baori in Abhaneri village in eastern Rajasthan, India, is one of the most overlooked landmarks in the country. It is one of the oldest stepwells in Rajasthan… among the biggest in the world… This incredible square structure is 13 stories deep, and lined along the walls on three sides are double flight of steps… Built during the 8th and 9th century by King Chanda of Nikumbha Dynasty, the well provided the surrounding areas with a dependable water source for centuries before modern water delivery systems were introduced. As the green water at the base attests, the well is no longer in use, but it makes for an interesting stop-over to an architecturally impressive structure that is over 1000 years old. There’s also a temple adjoining the well for visitors to explore… The well’s sheer endlessly appearing geometric complexity made of stairs and steps ensured that Rajput people had access to water at any time of the year, and from all sides… The large mouth of the well functioned as a rain catching funnel that contributed to the water seeping in from the porous rock at the bottom… At the bottom the well the air is always about 5-6 degrees cooler than at the top.

The steps surround the well on three sides while the fourth side has a set of pavilions built one atop another.

The side that has the pavilions have niches with beautiful sculptures including religious carvings. There is even a royal residence with rooms for the King and the Queen and a stage for the performing arts.

The creative mind filled with childhood memories of joyful play comes up with an extraordinary proposal ~ Je suis très impressionné.

In Paris, an inflatable trampolinebridge has been proposed by the Paris-based architectural studio Atelier Zündel Cristea firm to span the Seine River. This would allow travellers a unique and fun method of crossing the Seine River near the existing Pont de Bir-Hakeim.The three 30-meter-round inflatable modules are held together with a cord to form a self-supporting structure. Under the right amount of tension, each circle’s sides flip up, keeping Parisian bouncers at play from flopping into the river. Trampoline mesh is stretched along the inside of each ring, and floats above the water, where participants can enjoy the Seine without dipping into it.

CNet reports the proposal is part of a contemporary bridge design competition named “A Bridge in Paris,” sponsored by Arch Triumph. Mesh trampolines would stretch almost 100 feet across giant PC rings inflated with approximately 130,000 cubic feet of air.

Quoted from The Huffington Post: “It appears to us that Paris has the bridges and passages necessary for the flow of vehicular and pedestrian traffic across its waterways” said architecture firm AZC on its website. “Our intention is to invite its visitors and inhabitants to engage on a newer and more playful path across this same water.”

October 18th marks the 40th anniversary of the United States Clean Water Act.

What Is the Clean Water Act?

Here’s a look at what the Clean Water Act is and how this legislation is intended to address water pollution.

Answer: The Clean Water Act or CWA is the primary legislation in the United States that addresses water pollution. The goal of the Clean Water Act is to limit the release of high volumes of toxic chemicals into the nation’s water and ensure that surface waters met standards for sports and recreational use.The present legislation is based on the Federal Water Pollution Control Amendments of 1972. Significant amendments were added in the Clean Water Act of 1977 and the Water Quality Act of 1987.

…As game-changing laws go, the 1972 U.S. Clean Water Act ranks high. With images of rivers like the Cuyahoga burning and fish floating belly up in Lake Erie still fresh in the public’s mind, the Act transformed the nation’s relationship with fresh water. It forbade cities and industries from using rivers and lakes as waste receptacles… The Act also set an ambitious goal: by 1985 the nation’s waters should be “fishable and swimmable.” Although we missed that deadline, we are two-thirds of the way to achieving that goal… This year, as we celebrate the Act’s 40th anniversary, we can take pride in its accomplishments. But after four decades, the Act needs to be given new teeth and updated tools, both to meet its original goals as well as to address new water challenges that have emerged since its passage.”